The Politics of the Unity Accord of 1987 in Baya’s Tomorrow’s People
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https://doi.org/10.24113/ijohmn.v10i1.277Abstract
That politics is the acquisition, retention and perpetuation of power seems to have been the teleology of the Unity Accord of 1987. This was an agreement signed between ZANU-PF and PF-ZAPU in the glare of the Gukurahundi genocide when the ethnic and political other had been rendered helpless and, therefore, offered a Hobson’s choice. The agreement authorised ethnic subordination and left feelings of bitterness on sections of the country. In examining the politics of the Unity Accord, the study draws from Baya’s play titled Tomorrow’s People (2009). It is one of the literary texts that narrativises the sentiments about the unity agreement. The paper uses the Social Identity Theory to argue that the agreement was solipsistic in terms of constructing the them and us binaries in ethnic relations in Zimbabwe. The paper concludes that the implications of the accord have not been sufficiently theorised in terms of its political, social, linguistic and economic belonging and equal opportunities. There can never be national unity without reconciliation and forgiveness; enforced forgetfulness breeds bitterness and magnifies ethnic identification as shown in Zimbabwe today.
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